In his book on personal spiritual disciplines, Dr. Don Whitney makes the observation that while Jesus was always busy doing the Father’s work, He was never rushed while He did it[1]. In a world that often equates “busyness” with “hurriedness” this can seem to be quite the paradox. We see people rushing from place to place, with a to-do list that is a mile long and think “those are the busy people!” (or perhaps others say this about us). Being productive and unhurried seem to be antitheses. Even our analogies for busy lives seem to assume a posture of chaos. We are “putting out fires,” “spinning a lot of plates,” “juggling a lot of balls” and the southern favorite, “running around like a chicken with my head cut off.” If we are busy, we are rushed.
However, if we stop and ask ourselves whether this mad dash way of life is in fact productive, most of us would readily admit that it is not. As I often tell my kids when they barrel through their schoolwork, doing something fast and doing something correctly are not the same thing. When speed is our only motivator, we are more prone to errors. Who among us hasn’t left the house in a hurry only to find that we forgot something important as we hastened out the door?
If being rushed and being busy are not necessary companions, how can we do better at imitating our Savior’s focus on His work without a sense of hurriedness as we do it? How can we be busily productive and not chaotically rushed? Here are four recommendations as we look to the example of Jesus:
Be Prayerful
In my small group we were recently talking about what it looks like to rely on God rather than depend on ourselves. Someone asked how we know if we are failing to do that. I shared that there is a tiny muscle in my neck that spasms which is a great (and painful) way to be made aware of the fact that I am probably taking on the cares of the world rather than bringing them to God. When we start off the day with prayer, and pray throughout the day, we are more likely to be regularly and faithfully aligning our will with God’s. If we are fixing our hearts and minds on Him, we will be filled with His peace (Is. 26:3) as we trust Him to do His work through and in us. When this is the case, even if there is a lot on the agenda for our day, we can be busy about work but resist the temptation to have a busy and cluttered heart. In short, we can be productively focused on the tasks God has set before us, trusting Him for the results, instead of frantically thinking that we are the ones who keep the plates spinning in our busy lives.
Be Restful
It may seem counterintuitive but it is clear from Christ’s life that He got everything accomplished that God had ordained for Him in His three years of earthly ministry, and that He also purposefully and intentionally took time away from “doing” the work . This time away was used to pray (Luke 6:12, see point above) and to rest and recharge (Mark 60:30-32). From the beginning of Creation, God made it clear that we require, and we benefit, from rest (Gen 2:1-3; Ex. 20:8-11). As has often been said, we rest to work. Rest, then, is a necessary component of productivity. If we find ourselves in a hurried stage of life, it could be because we have not intentionally set aside time to be unhurried. We only rightly view the work that God has given us when have also taken time to diligently focus on Who God is; to rest from the work in order to focus our worship on our Savior. Resting is an opportunity to recognize and appreciate our finiteness and recommit to trusting in Him amidst our toil. Resting well is required for working well. We can’t spend all our time resting because then we will have neglected the good works God has prepared for us (Eph 2:10), but if we don’t spend any time resting, we will be hurried instead of busy doing that good work.
Be Focused
Jesus made it clear that He was focused on doing the work that the Father had given Him (Luke 2:49, John 5:19-20). Being focused on that work means that He was not distracted by other opportunities or priorities. While the work that Christ was called to do was unique, each of His children also have been called to specific areas of influence and specific roles that God has uniquely designed for us. For each individual, those roles and tasks may differ. The key is not that we are all called to do the same specific work; the key is that we focus on the work that is ours. It is easy to chase after many seemingly good things which have value but which God has tasked someone else with doing. I can’t be you and do your work, and you can’t be me. The grass may seem greener on your side of the fence, but I need to water (and plow and harvest) in the fields that God has given me. We may wish to be a dedicated teacher, a ground-breaking astronaut, an acclaimed speaker, and a famous athlete, all while being a committed spouse, intentional parent, and faithful ministry leader, but in all likelihood, God has not called us to do all those things. We need to stay focused on the work that He has set out for us to do in the season that we are in, and trust that in His good plans, He has called other believers to do the other good work that needs to be accomplished in order to bring about His good purposes.
Prioritize People
Each of the preceding recommendations focused on how we can be in order to be busy without being rushed. However, the last recommendation focuses on what to do. Specifically, we need to prioritize people over projects if we want to emulate our Savior’s approach to His work. When the to-do list becomes of utmost importance, we are quick to evaluate ourselves based on how much we get done and the number of achievements we have secured. When people are our priority, we will focus on the impact that we are making in the lives of others, rather than our own accolades and accomplishments. Think about it. How often is the reason that you are “short” with your spouse or your kid because you have something else you want to be doing, rather than because you are centering your thoughts and intentions on them? This isn’t to say our spouse and our children should be the center of our world; God should always have that position. But if He is the center of our lives then our focus is going to be on what matters most to Him. And what matters most to Him are the people that He created; the ones that He sent His Son to this world to redeem. If we truly appreciate the impact that we can have on the lives of others, it is going to be a challenge to leave a rushed life. After all, a rushed life may accomplish a lot of things, but a rushed life rarely changes someone else’s life for the better. That requires intentionality, diligence and commitment. That requires truly loving others as Christ loved us.
Living a hurried life is a way of being for some people; they don’t know how to “get things done” if they are not rushing around trying to cross off their to-do list. But it wasn’t the way that our Savior lived His life. Instead, as Dr. Whitney stated, he was busy but never hurried. As we seek to grow in our Christlikeness, may those words increasingly characterize our lives as well.
[1] Don Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2014), p. 189
